by Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Haters of Sony's superhero movies featuring Spider-Man villains received mixed news last week. middle Kraven the HunterAfter a box office failure, Sony has reportedly abandoned plans to create an interconnected universe of Spidey's rivals. However, Variety reports that the studio will continue working in the genre with upcoming releases such as Beyond the Spider-Verse And live action Black spider man The series stars Nicolas Cage. Although no one can deny the ambitious quality of the Spider-Verse films, the news that Sony will continue to make superhero films frustrates me because it exemplifies everything that is wrong with the genre.
Sony's superhero movies are tasting success
As Jeff Bock, an exhibitor relations analyst, points out, Sony's fatal flaw is that it “has tasted success.” Poison“, and this led them to believe they could make 'superhero' movies built around Spidey's colorful rogues gallery. He noted that the studio didn't realize 'that.' Poison She can carry a franchise, while these other characters can't. Keeping Spider-Man out of movie villains “was the fatal flaw” because most of these villains aren't compelling on their own, and the disastrous Madame Web Sony has proven to be just as inept when it comes to focusing on a superhero rather than a supervillain in its unfinished films.
Who are these heroes?
This brings us to the first clear example of Sony's arrogance: they inexplicably assumed that audiences didn't want any sort of brand recognition for these cinematic heroes. marvel He's worked hard to make Venom a cult comic character since the '90s, and thus, there was plenty of material to draw from when creating his solo films. But the characters are like MorbiusAnd Madame Web and Kraven aren't nearly as popular or developed, and the focus on them was as crazy as if the MCU had released the Vulture or Mysterio movies without Spider-Man.
talking about MCUComparing it to Sony reveals the extent to which the latter studio has put the cart before the horse with its superhero films. Although Marvel has cast some big names before, many fan-favorite characters are played by relatively unknown people, including Tom Holland. Marvel took the time to bring in good actors who could attract audiences, but with films like Kraven and Madame Webthey seem to be hoping for some familiar juicy roles (hey, look, the guy from kick ass He's a champion now!) would be enough to pique the audience's interest.
No web connection
To make matters worse, Sony has never figured out how to properly deliver superhero movies. We get nods towards a shared universe like the MCU's Vulture Morbiusand A No going home Post-credits confirmation from Marvel that Sony's films were in their own multiverse. But the films didn't seem to be aiming for anything or taking advantage of their shared universe. This wouldn't matter if the individual heroes and villains were so incredibly compelling, but that's simply not the case.
The bottom line of all this is that Sony is committed to making more superhero movies, and there are basically no signs that they have learned from the critical and commercial failures of Morbius, Madame Weband Kraven the Hunter. The studio seems committed to burning millions upon millions of dollars on seemingly trivial things you find on Tubi's virtual bottom shelf. We can only hope they've learned at least one lesson from now on: that audiences might actually want Spider-Man to appear in a Spider-Man movie.
Or, you know, they can just hope that things like those sarcastic “It's Morbin' Time” memes can give these terrible films the cultural imprint they'll never have on their depressing merits.
source: diverse
